Category Archive
‘Hemmings Classic Car’: 4142 Posts

What makes an old car special? Is it the engine under the hood? Is it the ownership history? Is it the stylistic or mechanical or technological advances that the car embodies? Or is it something else, something far simpler, something much more democratic? We didn’t expect to have to confront these topics in our recent story on the stretched Chevrolet station wagon once owned by the Milton Hershey School going to the AACA Museum, but commenter Olddavid questioned exactly what made the wagon—among other vehicles—so special:

This may be a curiosity, but some cars only need preservation in pictures. Have we jumped the shark on the nostalgia of restoration? What’s next, vintage go-karts? Favorite Biscayne four doors? The recent pics of the Shelby K-variants reminded me of what absolute **** those were. Wheels, tires and stickers were their claim to fame. I say this as a man who would love to have a turbo LeBaron wagon of 80′s vintage. Not all cars are special by dint of their age or survival.

He later clarified that he didn’t mean to deprive anybody of their nostalgia, but to Olddavid a number of other commenters responded with a different viewpoint, among them Carmen Angelo:

Those cars represent a lot of fond memories for the many students and administrators from a time when the world through their eyes was a much different place. It a good thing that people do care if not look of what would be lost on so many other pieces of our history.

As if to reinforce that point, we heard from a couple Milton Hershey School alumni in the comments to that post, including George Salomskas of the class of 1968, who related a number of anecdotes regarding the wagons and filled us in a little more on the history of the wagons at MHS:

The ’62s were the original year & only Bow Ties in the fleet. Towards the left in the 2nd picture, you will see the late 50′s R-model IH bus that the Chevies were replacing. Our unit, Eastmoor, was located about a mile west on Rt 322 from the AACA. When I arrived there in ’65 our ride was a ’63 Poncho 389/2bbl. Oddly, our houseparents, Mr. & Mrs. Charles E. Frick had a ’63 sedan speced out the same. They had a ’64 Catalina @ Rolling Hill, I think that was the name of the unit where the headquarters is now. In 1966 admin. added more Ponchos. The early ones had 4spd Hydros with the short 1st gear, the ’66s THM400′s. I always dreamed of owning a stick 327 Chevy “LIMBO WAGON” but woke up a MoPar man! “LIMBO” was our mid-60s pet name for the rides along with “squre deal” & “woge” Do any of y’all Home Boys out there remember?

Also chiming in was Jeff Antonucci of the class of 1984, who wrote

We had the Pontiacs when I was there. They were really great for doing Chinese fire drills in downtown Hershey when the substitute house parents were on duty. We also decorated them up real nice for the Coco Bean Game with the Hershey High School. (I still have pictures somewhere) I always wanted to find one, but what the heck are you going to do with it? I’m really glad one will be preserved. Count me in for a donation.

We’d love to hear from more Milton Hershey School alumni who rode in the stretch wagons during their time at the school. In the meantime, enjoy poring over these two additional photos of a couple of the wagons in Washington, D.C., for a school field trip.

UPDATE (23.March 2015): Jeff Antonucci sent along the below photos of one of the Pontiac stretch wagons at the Coco Bean Game, circa 1981 or 1982. “I’m the blond kid in the middle with the Penn State sweatshirt and Members Only jacket – yikes!”

Reminiscent of the everyday street scenes of Charles Cushman, Hans Juergen Hoenerloh’s photos capture not-much-in-particular-but-still-fascinating glimpses of his travels. Thanks to Facebook reader Jean Schoeters, we see that Stefan Hoenerloh has posted a number of them to his site, including these two depicting Montreal in 1962. Above, the presence of the Eaton’s store pegs the location as somewhere near Rue Ste Catherine and Rue University, where Complexe Les Ailes now sits. Below, we’re not quite sure where the photo was taken. What do you see in these two photos?

In the early fifties, Ford took a hard look at what had initially been an innocent question: Are the import sports cars a flash in the pan, or just the tip of the proverbial iceberg? Evidence suggested the latter, that indeed the two-seat movement had gained a foothold on domestic soil and was intensifying. And so after careful consideration and development by management and engineering, in September 1954 Ford Motor Company formally introduced the production version of “a new kind of sports car” for the 1955 model year, aimed directly at the previously disregarded market segment.

Called the Thunderbird, it was equipped with a spritely 292-cu.in. V-8 as standard equipment. The finely balanced 102-inch wheelbase cruiser was also fitted with a three-speed manual transmission, a removable hardtop, clean lines, rocket-like taillamps blended into finned quarter panels, and a dual exhaust system exiting through rear bumper guards in equally rocket-like fashion. Options included a soft-top (in addition to or in lieu of the hardtop), Ford-O-Matic transmission, wire wheel covers, and power windows, brakes and steering.

Though designed to steal sales from the imports, the road test media instead wrote of the Thunderbird’s ability to easily compete against Chevrolet’s Corvette. More than 16,000 T-Birds, as they were quickly dubbed, were built in its first year, but along the way Ford rapidly dropped the sports car reference and instead advertised the two-seater as a “personal car.” It’s a designation that gained a substantial foothold when the redesigned four-seat 1958 Thunderbirds were rolled out with unimagined success. In turn, the T-Bird became the ever-evolving benchmark for the personal luxury car market for more than three decades.

In recognition of their 60th anniversary, pre-1971 model year Thunderbirds will be honored at the ninth-annual Hemmings Motor News Concours d’Elegance. The class will feature six generations of the personal luxury icon, and as the number of entries continues to grow, we’re pleased to announce that attendees will have an opportunity to examine some rare variations, including the F-Code example pictured atop the page.

Amidst the escalating horsepower war in Detroit during the latter half of the Fifties – fed by racing accolades that yielded bold headlines and, in return, spurred sales – manufactures began producing elaborate fuel induction systems. Ford’s exotic engine for 1957 started life as a standard 245-hp, 312-cu.in. Y-block; however engineers adopted a McCulloch/Paxton variable ratio supercharger that boosted output to a conservative factory rating of 300 hp. Known by its option designation, the F-Code Thunderbirds were produced in exceptionally low numbers; just 211 out of a total production run of more than 21,300.

Also scheduled to appear is the 1967 Ford Thunderbird Apollo pictured below; one of a mere five created for the flagship storefronts of Abercrombie & Fitch, and loaded with amenities such as leather upholstery, fold-down desks for rear-seat passengers, a Philco television set and a straight-from-the-future radio telephone.

1967 Thunderbird Apollo. Photo by Daniel Strohl.

Joining the Thunderbirds will be five other featured marque classes, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Chevrolet’s 1965-and-later Mark IV big-block equipped passenger cars; Mercedes-Benz 300SL “Gullwing” Coupes and Roadsters; Packards; Hudsons; and Police Cars thru 1990. These featured marques will be joined by our traditional classes, headlined by Full Classics, as well as American Open/Closed Models, American Muscle Cars, European Cars, Vintage Trucks and Preservation vehicles.

Presented by Gullwing Motor Cars and sponsored by Chubb Collector Car Insurance and ROGO Fasteners, the Hemmings Motor News Concours d’Elegance will be held on Sunday, September 27 in the picturesque Saratoga Spa State Park adjacent to the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York. The Concours will be preceded by the Hemmings Rally to Lake George on Friday, September 25, followed by Saturday’s Cruise-In Spectacular and Concours evening banquet, the latter headlined by a keynote address from this year’s Honorary Chairman, automotive legend Peter Brock. Joining us throughout the weekend once again will be Master of Ceremonies Ed Lucas.

If you would like to have your Thunderbird or another vehicle considered for Sunday’s Concours d’Elegance, please send photos and a brief write-up about it to Hemmings Motor News Concours, Attn: Matthew Litwin, 222 Main Street, Bennington, Vermont, 05201, or by email to concours@hemmings.com.

More information about the ninth Annual Hemmings Motor News Concours d’Elegance, including Friday and Saturday registration and ticket packages, can be found at Hemmings.com/Events/Concours. A portion of the concours proceeds goes directly towards the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s educational programs focused on safety and distracted driving awareness. To learn more, visit SaratogaAutoMuseum.org.

Thanks to Buffalo publication The Public, we now know quite a bit about the Lehigh Valley Terminal at the heart of this photo that Facebook reader Joseph Bergen passed on to us. Opened in 1916, closed in 1952 and demolished in 1960, it sat at 125 Main Street right about where I-190 passes through the city. Based on the cars in the photo, we see it at some point after its closing. What do you see here, and can you help narrow down the date for us?

Buses were just too industrial for the Milton Hershey School in the early Sixties. Instead, the boarding school’s administrators wanted to transport its students to and from student housing in a manner that more resembled typical family life. To do so, they commissioned a fleet of station wagons – extra long five-row 14-passenger station wagons – and now, decades after going out of service, one of the wagons has returned to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and will soon go on display at the AACA Museum.

Located atop the hill overlooking the AACA swap meet and car show that takes place every fall in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the Milton Hershey School was founded in 1909 initially to provide a home and education for orphan boys, and later for impoverished boys and girls. With hundreds of students distributed among dozens of houses around the city, it needed not only a more intimate way to transport the students, but also a more efficient one than sending lumbering buses around to multiple houses.

So in 1962, the school purchased about a dozen Chevrolet Biscayne station wagons, each outfitted with a 250hp 327-cu.in. V-8 engine, three-on-the-tree manual transmission, power steering, and power brakes, then sent the wagons to Stageway Coaches in Fort Smith, Arkansas (a predecessor company to coachbuilder Armbruster-Stageway), where Stageway stretched the wagons a few feet and added two more doors per side and three rows of seats, including a rear-facing seat all the way in the back. The last two rows of seats folded down to allow the wagons to do double-duty carrying meals for the students from a central kitchen to their houses. In addition, Stageway supplemented the stock rear coil springs with three-quarter elliptic leaf springs to handle the weight of more than a dozen boys and teenagers.

The school continued to buy stretched wagons until about 1975, switching from Chevrolets to Pontiacs in about 1968, but the wagons remained in service until the early 1980s, when the school phased them out in favor of Dodge Tradesman and Ford Econoline vans. According to John Hanawalt, a past president of the school’s alumni association, the school had owned as many as 85 of the wagons over that timespan.

This particular Chevrolet the school sold off as surplus to an area resident in 1972 or 1973, according to AACA Museum director Mark Lizewskie. By the early 2000s, it had ended up engineless and with a crumpled quarter panel in a central Pennsylvania junkyard, which in turn sold it to its previous owner, who installed a big-block Chevrolet V-8 and welded the center doors shut on each side in an attempt to turn it into a limousine.

Then in 2009, a group of Milton Hershey School students, led by Rosario Sollazzi, one of the school’s alumni, began a search for any remaining MHS station wagons. The school had already acquired one of the Chevrolet wagons, but it was in such poor shape that the school ended up scrapping it. Another alum had one of the Pontiacs in his collection in California, but the only other Chevrolet wagon that came up was the one in Pennsylvania. After a few years of negotiations and after the school decided not to pursue the purchase of another wagon (“They just didn’t want to get into the auto restoration business,” Sollazzi said.), Sollazzi, Hanawalt, and Hanawalt’s brother Jim bought the Chevrolet and donated it to the AACA Museum in the interest of preserving it.

While volunteers at the museum are now preparing the wagon for display in the museum’s upcoming station wagon exhibit, the museum has also started a fundraising campaign for the wagon’s eventual restoration. “We’re looking at a minimum of $40,000 to restore it,” said Lizewskie, who noted that the museum will entrust the restoration to the students of the Pennsylvania College of Technology‘s auto restoration program, who most recently finished a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle 454 SS for the museum. “This car was always destined to be an educational tool of some sort, so it’s just living up to that destiny by going to them,” Lizewskie said.

The AACA Museum’s “A Family Affair: Station Wagons” exhibit will run from May 23 to October 11. For more information on the exhibit, visit AACAMuseum.org. And for more information on the Milton Hershey School station wagon, visit AACAMuseum.org/wagonrestoration.

A mid-century spotlight on GM’s Fisher Body Division. All photos are frame grabs from video below.

Please excuse those of us still braving Polar Vortex winds, slogging through late-winter snow and suspiciously eyeing killer roofline icicles as we daydream of cruising in a 1950 Chevrolet Styleline DeLuxe 4-Door Sedan during the coming days of spring – in a month or two at most.

To ensure safe and quiet motoring, the folks at Fisher demonstrate how to build a proper Unisteel body…

…though it appears that their springtime workdays aren’t all lemonade and sunshine.

Two items of interest: Though sponsored by Chevrolet, the 1950 film’s tow car looks a lot like a 1950 Olds 76 Holiday Coupé, while the “new Chevrolet” bound for glory is a year-old ’49 DeLuxe Styleline 4-Door Sport Sedan.

Though seemingly separated by just a few years, these two photos of the Fountain Square area in downtown Johnson City, Tennessee, which we came across on the Archives of Appalachia Flickrstream, show quite a few substantial changes to the buildings in both photos (the ones on the far left, above, and the ones on the far right, below). The cars aren’t that radically different between the two photos, however. What do you see here?

Just so nobody thinks the aftermarket wheels and tires were a recent addition, we’ll reiterate what the seller of this 1972 Chevrolet G20 Sportvan listed on Hemmings.com notes below: That his grandfather was the one who installed them. And unlike the popular perception of all Seventies vans as sin bins, this one still has its original interior in its original configuration, without any customization beyond the Cragars and BFGs. From the seller’s description:

This was purchased New in 1971 from Mel Bunnell Chevrolet Dealership in Pomona, California, now selling the family Van a 1972 Chevrolet Sportvan Custom 20 Original Owner van 350 V-8 with Turbo 350 Auto trans with after market AC needs recharged and with cruise control not working but all complete. This has been a daily driver, mostly local. As the years have passed, the van was parked based on Grandpa’s health issues. I had found grandpa’s old school vintage Cragar Rims with BF Ta’s, mounted them, looks real nice. New Front and rear shocks. Fresh rebuild on the 4BBL carb, and pulled fuel tank for cleaning and had the body polished out. Drives nice, but the motor could use a good cleaning and freshening up, new valve cover gaskets and set of plugs/ wires and a exhaust leak at donuts. Added new reproduction steering wheel with center cap. Included are the original stock steel rims with tires.

This Van has never been painted, just well taken care of over the years. It has had some very minor run-ins of small dings and dents only. The cargo door, left side taillight area, etc. The left side vent window pivot stem has broken from factory weld. The upholstery is in excellent condition, with only the passenger seat having some seam splits. The headliner is original wood panels. All glass is good, with all pop-out windows working properly with all doors open like they should, side cargo door when opening it does hit a little bit of rear tire, still opens fine. One key opens all doors and ignition. The engine runs very nice, could use a good cleaning and a full tune-up. Valve cover gaskets, plugs, wires, exhaust donuts need replacing.

Generally speaking, a 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door hardtop Sport Coupe with an older restoration crossing the auction block wouldn’t be particularly newsworthy. When the car is being sold at no reserve, with all proceeds going to benefit the Auto Restoration Program at McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, we’re willing to make exceptions.

Donated to McPherson College last year, the Cay Coral Metallic Bel Air came from a couple who were long-time supporters of the school, going so far as to establish a scholarship fund for McPherson Auto Restoration Program students. The Bel Air was once the wife’s car, and when she passed away, donating the car to the school seemed like the logical thing to do. Part of the donation agreement stipulated the car was to be sold to raise money for the Auto Restoration Program, so no one will be happier when it sells for big money than the widower of its former owner.

The 1958 Chevrolets wore single-year only “Sculpturamic” styling, influenced by the Jet Age. Side trim on Bel Air models was meant to resemble a rocket ship in flight, while Impala models even went so far as to add faux “intakes” ahead of the rear wheels. Previous-year Bel-Airs may be more sought after by collectors, but there’s still a certain elegance to the 1958 model year styling that disappeared as design trends shifted in later years.

McPherson College project director Brian Martin advises that no body or paint work was performed on the car during its time at the school, although the interior was redone by a senior student specializing in trim work. Mechanically, chassis shop students have replaced the brakes and u-joints, while engine shop students have rebuilt the carburetor and performed a tune-up. It’s not clear if the Bel Air was originally a four-barrel carburetor and dual-exhaust car (meaning the 283 V-8 beneath the hood was a Super Turbo Fire, producing 230 horsepower), or if these parts were added by an owner looking for better performance from the 185-horsepower Turbo Fire V-8. Shifting duties are handled by a Powerglide automatic transmission.

The car itself has received a few upgrades over the years, some perhaps necessary in its former South Florida home. The front drum brakes were replaced with discs at some point, and a dealer-installed Cool Pack air-conditioning system was added. The Continental kit is a period-correct add-on as well, though these accessories tend to polarize classic car fans.

While the donated Bel Air is not concours-ready, Martin describes it as a “great driver,” making it perfect for local shows and weekend cruise-ins. Auctions America is predicting a selling price between $15,000 and $25,000 when the car crosses the stage on March 27, and for once, we hope an auction lot sells for much, much more than its estimate.

The Fort Lauderdale sale will take place on March 27-29 at the Greater Fort Lauderdale / Broward County Convention Center. For more information, visit AuctionsAmerica.com.

Team Hemmings’s 1932 Ford Speedster arrives in New Bern, North Carolina, during the 2014 Great Race. Photo by author.

There are still three months of planning and preparation ahead for the roughly 100 teams entered to compete in the 2015 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty, which will start in Kirkwood, Missouri, and travel along Route 66 through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, before finishing in Santa Monica, California. However, during the 2015 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, Great Race and Coker Tire Company owner Corky Coker announced that the 2016 edition of the legendary vintage car rally will travel along the historic Lincoln Highway.

Scheduled to begin on June 18, 2016, the Great Race will start on California’s Gold Coast, before heading east through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota and Iowa, and then finishing in Illinois on June 26. As has become a Great Race tradition, teams will be able to see many of the route’s historic natural and man-made monuments, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Lake Tahoe, the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Rocky Mountains, of course, the Crazy Horse Monument, Mount Rushmore and other interesting sights.

First run in 1983, the Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty is arguably the quintessential time/distance/endurance rally open to all 1972 and older collectible cars, trucks and motorcycles (yes, a motorcycle competed once). Based on experience, team entries compete in five divisions: Grand Champion, Expert, Sportsman, Rookie and X-Cup divisions, the latter reserved for college and high school teams. Initially a cross-country adventure, in recent years it’s been massaged to a more manageable 2,400-mile, nine-day test of man and machine, and the 2016 Great Race looks to continue that practice.

Although the 2015 Great Race has been sold out, early registration is already open for 2016 for teams wishing to compete in this northern west-to-east adventure along the Lincoln Highway. For more information, or to register, visit GreatRace.com.

A quick note to those who would like to catch segments of either the 2015 or ’16 Great Race: As is always the case, the exact rally route is kept secret to prevent teams from practicing. Before the start of each day’s stage, teams are given course instructions just one hour before their start time. No GPS or maps are permitted in the rally vehicles, so drivers and navigators must rely on analog watches and course instructions to get from point A to B successfully and on time. The best locations to see the cars and meet the drivers/navigators are at the day’s lunch and dinner stops. Exact locations for each day’s stops will become available as details are finalized, or you can monitor the official Great Race website, where you can also learn more about the Great Race history, rules and award structure.